Joe Biden, 77, could be the oldest president ever to take office, but the two-term vice president isn’t ruling out serving eight years if he wins the White House this fall.
Biden, who last week accepted the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was asked whether he was leaving open the possibility of leading the country for two terms if he and running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris beat President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the general election.
“Absolutely,” Biden told ABC in a preview of an interview that will be aired in full Sunday night.
Biden said one of his objectives this cycle is to boost Democrats down ballot, repeating his desire to be “bridge” to future Democratic leaders.
“So [what] I want to do is make sure when this is over, we have a new Senate, we won back statehouses, we’re in a position where we transition to a period of bringing people up to the visibility that they need to get to be able to lead nationally,” he told ABC.
The sit-down is Biden and Harris’s first joint TV interview as the official Democratic 2020 ticket. They gave their first print interview to People magazine last week.
Biden will be 78 by Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2021. President Ronald Reagan, the oldest commander in chief to date, was 77 at the end of his tenure in 1989. By comparison, Trump is 74.
Voters and reporters frequently pressed Biden on his age, mental capacity, plans for a second term, and his potential vice presidential pick during the primary. His selection of Harris based on her ability to step up at a moment’s notice now positions her as the presumptive front-runner for the top job after Biden, whether that be for the 2024 or 2028 elections or sooner.
Harris was chosen after George Floyd, a black man, died following a white Minneapolis police officer pressing a knee to his neck during an arrest this summer, sparking protests over racial injustice across the country. But Biden on Sunday insisted he didn’t feel pressure to elevate a black woman.
“Fifty-one percent of the people in this country are women. As that old expression goes, ‘women hold up half the sky,’ and in order to be able to succeed, you’ve got to be dealt in across the board,” he said, quoting a phrase made famous by Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong.
